3 emerging Seahawks that will have breakout seasons in 2022
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have a lot of young and unproven talent on their roster. But three players who have a few seasons in the NFL should be ready to breakout.
The Seahawks are also going to need several players to have the best years of their careers if 2022 is going to be successful. Relying on rookies to consistently be fantastic is probably asking too much. Great from time to time? Sure. But for an entire season? Rookies make a lot of mistakes and then get better.
To be good, Seattle still needs to have its quarterback – whoever that turns out to be – not make a bunch of mistakes, its superstars, like DK Metcalf, play up to their potential and not have communication breakdowns on defense.
But Seattle also needs players who have been on the verge of being really good to make that proverbial turn and become great in 2022.
Three Seahawks ready for breakout seasons
Seahawks left guard Damien Lewis
Admittedly, this isn’t a sexy choice because Lewis is an offensive lineman. His greatness won’t show up in highlight videos the way someone like DK Metcalf does. But unlike Metcalf, Lewis does something every offensive down of every game as a lineman. Many times a fan might only notice a lineman when they’ve done something wrong.
If Lewis’ rookie season of 2020 he did a lot of things right. While Pro Football Focus gave him a pass-blocking grade of just 48.4 in 2020, he allowed only 3 sacks in 633 pass-block snaps played. But he was a beast in run-blocking and graded at an elite 81.5.
In 2021, Lewis was flipped to left guard after the Seahawks traded for veteran Gabe Jackson. This stunted Lewis’s growth and didn’t make the line better. Lewis had an overall grade of 57.1 last year but did allow just 1 sack in 431 pass-block snaps. But now Lewis has a year of learning left guard better and this should be the season he becomes dominant at the position.
Lewis is big enough at 335 pounds and smart enough to be good at whatever spot Seattle chooses to play him. Heck, he even played center for a game in 2020 and did pretty well. But if left guard is going to be his position moving forward, Lewis is capable of becoming an All-Pro there.